Chief continues to claim Georgia tax break
Chattanooga’s police chief has not withdrawn her claim to a tax break on her Georgia home, a perk that requires her to certify it’s her primary residence, according to the assessor’s office in Fulton County.
Chief Celeste Murphy’s residency is the subject of an investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, she told the department in an email Wednesday after inquiries from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Chattanooga requires city employees to live in Tennessee, according to the city’s charter, and Murphy is registered to vote in Hamilton County, which also requires Tennessee residency.
Murphy’s Georgia homestead exemption began in 2022, the same year she took her post in Chattanooga, a clerk at the assessor’s office said by phone Thursday. The exemption renews each year as long as the home doesn’t change owners, the clerk said, and can be withdrawn by visiting an assessor’s office or via an online form.
When the newspaper in March detailed Murphy’s conflicting residency claims in Georgia and Tennessee, the chief said she planned to talk with her tax preparer to become compliant with the homestead exemption rules.
“I still have family in Atlanta, and I still own property there,” she said in an emailed statement at the time. “Like many homeowners, I filed for my homestead exemption after purchasing that house when I still lived in Atlanta, and I haven’t revisited it since.”
Murphy is still taking the tax exemption as of this week, according to the Fulton County assessor, so it’s not clear that the chief has come into compliance — given that her voter registration and employment contract are predicated on residency in Tennessee.
Spokespeople for Chattanooga police declined to answer questions related to Murphy’s residency Thursday given the open investigation. TBI spokesperson Josh DeVine declined to answer
“We expect Chief Murphy to be held to the same standard as anyone else and to be held to the same standard that she held officers that she ... punished before.”
— JOSEPH OGG, PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF POLICE OFFICERS UNION
questions in an email Thursday.
“Chief Murphy will not be making any comments or giving interviews,” Murphy’s chief of staff, Jerri Sutton, said by email. “Our procedures with open investigations will remain the same.”
UNDER INVESTIGATION
Murphy said Wednesday she is cooperating with the TBI’s investigation into her residency.
She said she initiated an internal affairs investigation within the department, which is reportedly being handled by an outside attorney and is on hold while the TBI conducts its investigation.
The investigation came after an allegation of official misconduct from the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, which represents DAs across the state, TBI spokesperson Susan Niland said in an email. Niland did not know when the criminal investigation began.
The conference’s executive director, Stephen Crump, declined to comment on the investigation Thursday since it is still open, he said by phone.
While a new law, if approved by the voters, sets the stage for Chattanooga’s police and fire departments to hire people living outside the state, it would not change the requirement for department heads like Murphy.
“We expect Chief Murphy to be held to the same standard as anyone else,” Joseph Ogg, president of the local International Brotherhood of Police Officers union, said by phone, “and to be held to the same standard that she held officers that she ... punished before.”
One of 15 officers Murphy reassigned in 2022 due to past allegations of misrepresentation had been investigated for living in Chickamauga, internal affairs documents show. The officer had been previously suspended for 40 hours before Murphy joined the department.
A FIRST?
Chattanooga City Council members had not been briefed on the TBI’s investigation as of Thursday, Chip Henderson, the council’s chair, said by phone.
“Many times … we’ll be briefed on the legal aspects of investigations, and stuff like that,” Henderson said.
Murphy’s appointment by Mayor Tim Kelly in April 2022 was confirmed unanimously by city council members at the time. To remove someone appointed by the mayor, Henderson said, at least three-quarters of council members have to vote to remove.
“It’s always a concern when an investigation is requested,” council member Darrin Ledford, of East Brainerd, said in a text. “I’ll be awaiting the outcome of the TBI.”
Representatives from Kelly’s office did not respond to questions related to the investigation Thursday.